chedstone.com

According to the Wikipedia article, ‘Satisfaction with Life Index‘, the United States ranks as the 23rd most happy country, right below the United Arab Emirates, Saint Kitts and Nevis, and Seychilles.The ‘World Happiness Map’ is derived from data collected from the Happy World Index(HPI), an organization the believes Gross Domestic Product alone is an inaccurate determinate for a country’s overall success in maintaining happy citizenry.

“The nations that top the Index aren’t the happiest places in the world, but the nations that score well show that achieving, long, happy lives without over-stretching the planet’s resources is possible. The HPI shows that around the world, high levels of resource consumption do not reliably produce high levels of well-being (life-satisfaction), and that it is possible to produce high levels of well-being without excessive consumption of the Earth’s resources.”

By taking into account “what we put in (resources), and what comes out (human lives of different length and happiness)” the HPI is able to determine what country’s citizens lead the most satisfying lives.